Steve Carell’s list of best movies and TV shows is extremely impressive, and it includes both The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Notably, both those projects that helped define his career premiered in 2005. Now, Kat Dennings, who stared alongside him in the Judd Apatow film, opened up about the nervous energy he had while working on the movie because he had just finished filming the iconic NBC pilot.
While Dennings chatted about Hollywood Dads with People — seeing as Carell played her step-father in The 4o-Year-Old Virgin and Tim Allen plays her father in her new sitcom on the 2025 TV schedule called Shifting Gears — she had the following to say about Steve Carell and his “anxious energy” on set:
Steve Carell, I remember him being like, ‘God, I hope this works out.’ And he had just done The Office pilot or something like that, and now he’s one of the biggest stars in the world, rightly so. He is the loveliest man you’ll ever know.
The Office actor’s work has proved time and time again that he’s one of the funniest. In fact, his NBC comedy is one of the best sitcoms of all time and The 40-Year-Old Virgin is bookmarked as one of the best movies of the 2000s. So, it’s surreal to hear the anecdote about his nervous energy over them from Dennings. However, it also makes sense, considering this was a major turning point, and booking and maintaining a network sitcom is a very, very big deal.
As I mentioned, both the aforementioned show and movie were huge hits overall and catapulted Carell to stardom. From there he expanded into indie classics like Little Miss Sunshine, explored various animated worlds a la Horton Hears a Who! and expanded into meatier more dramatic roles in films like Foxcatcher. All the while he continued to carve out a rightful place in the comedy genre that expands well past Michael Scott.
I think that many of us could tell he was here to stay after almost losing a nipple during the infamous ‘Kelly Clarkson!’ moment in 40-Year-Old — and hopefully, Carell realized after filming this killer scene, too.
Dennings, too has seen plenty of success after working on that Judd Apatow-directed movie. The House Bunny alum has been no stranger to the big screen with hitsThor and more. Her television work–animated and not–is just as notable, with the height being her time on 2 Broke Girls. Now, she’s landed back on the small screen in Shifting Gears alongside Tim Allen. The new gig seems even more exciting to Dennings with her sharing that she’s feeling more confident in front of a live audience this time around.
Clearly, both of them have carved out impressive paths, and there’s no anxiety needed. It’s also good to know that Carell, and Dennings for that matter, aren’t feeling the ‘anxious energy’ on such a grand scale anymore. And both of them know that The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin fill out some of the comedian’s brightest spots of work.
To see said work, you can stream The Office with a Peacock subscription and The 40-Year-Old Virgin is available to watch through VOD services. To see what Dennings is up to now, you can watch Shifting Gears on Wednesday nights on ABC or the next day with a Hulu subscription.